WHOLE CAULIFLOWER BAKED IN SMOKED GUBBEEN BECHAMEL

Today’s recipe requires a cauliflower (they’re in season and delicious in Ireland just now) and more importantly, it requires Smoked Gubbeen. 

I keep mentioning to people that they should buy Irish food and sometimes it’s important to drink your own medicine. So more than ever, I’m buying quality over quantity. I wanted cauliflower cheese and so I decided to go for a strong and easily recognised Irish cheese. Smoked Gubbeen is produced by the Ferguson family on the Gubbeen farm just outside Schull in West Cork. 

Smoked Gubbeen is made with milk from the Gubbeen herd which is fed GM-free food. A lot of thought and hard work goes into Gubbeen products and the smoked Gubbeen is a prime example of their ethos. 

For this cauliflower dish, I put the smoked gubbeen in the freezer for 20 min. It is a full-fat cheese and can be lovely and soft which is no good when you’re trying to grate it for a cheesy bechamel. Apart from this nifty trick, this is a very simple recipe. Nothing more than a souped-up good aul cauliflower and cheese! 

As an extra, if you have any cauliflower and cheese sauce leftover, I would recommend making a cheese toastie sandwich with some ham. You can eat it, cry and then thank me. 

I nearly forgot, you can buy smoked gubbeen and get it delivered straight to your door, by visiting Sheridan’s website. 

Ingredients 

• One small cauliflower
• 30 g of butter
• 150g of flour
• 250 ml of milk
• half a teaspoon of allspice
• half a teaspoon of mustard flour
• one teaspoon of crushed white peppercorn
• 200 g of grated smoked gubbeen cheese
• Salt to sprinkle

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180 C
• Bring a large pot of water to the boil and plunge your whole cauliflower (you will have taken away the leaves and given it a rinse) in the boiling water for 5 min). Drain and reserve the cauli. 
• In a separate pot, make your roux. You will melt the butter on a medium heat and add the flour in until it forms a lump-free paste. Add the milk and incorporate it in a little bit at a time. You want a thick, thick white sauce. This normally takes me up to 7 minutes of constant mixing. Add the mustard, pepper, salt allspice to the sauce. Fold the cheese in.
• Place the cauliflower on an oven tray and spoon the sauce all over it until it’s covered all over. 
• Put in the oven for about 12 minutes or until the sauce has browned a bit.